Christmas

We've had a great Christmas! Sarah's exhausted, but has been loving it. And the excitement isn't over - college friends on Jon's will be here for the weekend, then Jon's sister and her family come in town, overlapped by my sister and her kids. We're loving it!!

Christmas Eve, we had our annual family get together - 43 people this year; only missing a few cousins and their families. It was a lot of fun to catch up with people, and to watch Sarah play with her cousins (or second cousins or whatever you're supposed to call my cousin's kids) And of course the food was incredible!! On Christmas morning, after we did our family gifts here at home, we headed over to Mom and Dad's for the day. Sarah's big highlights were a tricycle and Elmo stuffed animal, and Uncle Jamey (she absolutely adores him). We're so excited that from now on when Jamey's here Dana will be, too - yes, they're engaged!!!!!! We love Dana and can't wait for her to officially join our family! - the wedding will be sometime this summer. YAY!!! :) The only damper of the day was when I spilled boiling water on my hand. Holy cow it hurt. I don't recommend it. It feels a lot better today, I just have some nasty blisters on my fingers.

Here are some pictures:

Christmas Lights

We went to see the Rock City Christmas Lights a few weeks ago ... the pictures aren't great but I wanted to post them.

Too bad Sarah's not looking at the camera for our family picture :(
She loved the Nativity Scene and didn't want to move on from it. She kept wanting to kiss baby Jesus ... and then she wanted to ride the cow!
Most of her little friends we went with wouldn't even sit on Santa's lap ... she sat there but sure seemed nervous!!! - she went into her shy frozen mode

It was a fun night - she loved all the lights! We look forward to making this an annual tradition!

2 year olds can't keep secrets!

Jon came by the house yesterday afternoon real quick, but we were out ... when he asked where we'd been I told him "you don't ask questions around Christmas." So he asked Sarah, "where did you and Mama go today?" With great enthusiasm she yelled "BIKES!" So yes, Jon figured it out, we were in a bike shop. We laughed so hard!

In addition to getting Jon something, I looked at 1 of these bikes:


They're huge in Europe, but haven't really made it over here much. It's called a "push bike" - doesn't have pedals so kids use their feet and the whole concept is they learn to balance and don't get dependant on training wheels. We thought about getting Sarah 1 for Christmas, but from what I've read, 2.5 is a better age to get them started. So hopefully we'll be able to get her one this summer!

When a 2 year old gets quiet, you begin to wonder what she is up too; I love sneaking around a corner to spy on Sarah when she's in her own world. This is what I found the other day ... she had completely emptied our hat/glove/scarf basket looking for a certain hat & mittens ...

That led to this ... she loves for us to both wear hats. When Sarah talks, she often leaves out words to form her phrases. After we put our hats on she said "Mama Sarah cheese hats!" So of course I had to take a self portrait of us!!

We said good bye to Grandma & Grandpa today. It was so great having them visit and watching Sarah become more and more attached to them. As they were pulling out of the driveway, Sarah said "bye bye maama, peepaw. See you next week" - we wish we could! When they came to say good bye this morning, Sarah graped a book and crawled in peepaw's lap ... (you can tell Sarah's exhausted from a week filled with LOTS of activity and excitement)

a funny Sarah story

Last night, Sarah was eating an apple as part of her dinner. In the past, when she's worked on a whole apple, she gets tired of it long before she gets to the core. Not last night! She started saying "uh-oh, uh-oh, UH-OH!" - I asked her what was wrong, and she pointed to her apple and said "ladybug!" - she thought the seeds where ladybugs and was totally distraught over it!!! (yes, we've had a lot of ladybugs in our house so Sarah has learned what they are) She makes me laugh!

Yesterday afternoon, Jon got about the best welcome home reaction ever ... we were at Rob and Liza's, and Jon and his dad walked in. I said "Sarah, look who's here!" She saw Jon's dad and said "Peepaw!" As she was walking towards him, she saw Jon and screamed in absolute sheer delight "PAPA!" and ran to him as fast as she could. It was so sweet!

Sarah's 2!!!

Sarah has had a FUN filled birthday weekend! She turned 2 on Thursday. I know all parents say this, but it is so hard to believe our baby is 2! She's getting so big! :) Granted, she is BIG - 95% in weight at a whopping 32 pounds and 75% in height at 35 inches.

Jon's parents came in town Thursday, so we have had lots of family time over the weekend - Sarah has LOVED it! Here are a bunch of pictures from our weekend:

Sarah's personality is exploding every day. She loves to be the center of attention - when we're in a group of people, typically after a few shy minutes, she goes into hyper/entertain mode. She is talking like crazy. She is a total parrot - repeating EVERYTHING (which can be dangerous!!) I need to do a better job of writing down funny things she says. She constantly cracks us up!

for Grandma and Grandpa

Sarah was been talking about Grandma and Grandpa a lot lately and she's so excited that we get to see them next week. This is for you Grandma and Grandpa (or maa-ma and pee-pa as Sarah says)

Thanksgiving week pictures

It's so rare that our entire family can get together. It was such a fun week. Sarah LOVED the time with her cousins! And continuing in her trend of liking guys, she totally latched onto Uncle Bruce and Uncle Jamey ("samey" as she says). We had great weather, and lots of fun playing on the beach, walking, and biking.

On Thanksgiving morning, we all did the Charleston Turkey Trot! Mom, Alysia, Bruce, and Dana, with the kids in strollers, walked. Jamey ran fast. Dad, Jon (pushing Sarah in the baby jogger) and I ran. It was definitely the slowest 5K I've ever run - but probably the funnest! It's nice having an excuse to run slow and enjoy it :) Sarah loved it - she kept saying "People run! Mama run!" Afterwards, they had a 4 and under 25 yard dash - Sarah was too cute! She bawled on the starting line because she was so ready to run and didn't want to have to wait. She had an expression of sheer joy as she ran though! And afterwards, she didn't stop and just kept running around and around in the grass. She's taking after me I can tell!! :)

Jamey has his pilot's licence to fly 4-seatter planes. He took us up in 3 groups - Dad, Dana, and I were the last group. I was quite impressed with my brother!!!!

Kenosha and Wild Dunes

It's been a busy 10 days! Last Thursday-Saturday, I was in Kenosha, Wisconsin for the NAIA National Cross-Country Championships because 1 of my runners qualified for the race. It was so much fun! I got home late last Saturday night, and we headed to Wild Dunes, South Carolina Sunday morning to spend Thanksgiving week with my family. The weather was perfect and we loved being with the whole family (Sarah started sobbing after her nap today when she found out her cousins weren't here).

Here are a few quick pictures. I'll post the rest soon.

post race (my assistant coach Patrick, Matt, and I) - Matt did so well! - and thank goodness my jacket still zipped over my pregnant belly because it was COLD!!

this picture is me freezing at Lake Michigan - the wind chill was in the single digits - and I'd never been to a beach with ice on it!

big contrast to this beach!!! Sarah LOVED the sand, ocean, shells, and sea gulls

the entire family - too bad Sarah was in a horrible mood and isn't look at the camera

we ran our 1st race together as a family - Charleston's 5K Turkey Trot! - and afterwards Sarah did the 25 meter kids dash! Clearly she loves running like her Mama :)

a huge highlight of the week was Jamey renting a plane - it was so fun to fly with him and the views were unreal!! I'll post LOTS more pictures from the air soon

Leaves leaves leaves!!!

It's amazing - we rake the yard, and the next day it looks like this:
Sunday we played outside in the leaf pile. Sarah wasn't sure what to think at times. This is my favorite - Sarah bracing for Isla's face lick! The slideshow below has the rest of the pictures.

I'll end with this - Sarah LOVES putting on Jon's sunglasses and always strikes a funny pose when she has them on :)

recent pictures

Last week it was COLD (which I love!) I realized I need to get Sarah a new jacket - this one is getting a bit short. This picture is from 1 morning last week headed to "school."

Collecting sticks is serious business :)

fun in the swing

wearing Mama's hat

Halloween was a bit humorous. By the time I got home from practice, and put together a quick dinner, it was already almost 7pm. So we quick got Sarah dressed, I managed to squeeze myself into my Carhart overalls, and Jon pulled out his "buck teeth" and we headed to my parents to do a 1 stop deal ... yet they weren't home. We were on fumes with gas, but the station up here was out of gas - so we headed down the mountain to fill up. We wanted to stop at atleast 1 house so we stopped by my aunt and uncle's - yet they weren't home either! So with an exhausted child, we did stop by 1 friends' house and then got her home to bed. Luckily she didn't know what she missed and we plan to put a bit more effort into trick or treating next year. The saddest part is that we didn't get a family picture or even a good picture of Sarah. These give you the idea. She sure looked cute!!

Saturday night we celebrated Jon's birthday and our niece, Allison's birthday with Rob and Liza and Joel and Katie and all the kids. Again, I did a horrible job of taking pictures! Here are the guys squinting into the sun, enjoying Jon's homemade salsa (it's GOOD!)

Sarah and Tilly on the bench

Sunday we enjoyed the PERFECT weather and changing leaves and took a walk on the property. I love Fall!!

So that's a hodge-podge of what's been going on lately!

Happy Birthday Papa!

Today is Jon's birthday - so here are 2 videos of Sarah wishing her Papa a happy birthday ...

Happy Birthday Jon!! We love you :)

Here are some new pictures of Sarah ...

she found this hat in her closet - clearly it's too small but she's loved wearing it around

playin in the car
We've spent a good deal of time playing on the deck lately. The Fall weather has felt soooo good! Sarah was giggling so much as Jon was bouncing her ... her face clearly shows her delight!!

My Dad always sends us home with his old tennis balls for Mattie and Isla - lately Sarah's been claiming them! It's amazing how long she stays entertained by taking the top off, dumping the balls out, putting the balls back in, putting the top on, and repeating the whole process. I love the concentration on her face!

All seems to be going well with baby#2. Everything has been perfect at my 1st 2 doctors appointments. We have an ultrasound on Tuesday, where we could find out if the baby is a boy or girl - but we like the surprise so let the anticipation build!!!